Posted by Wade on November 04, 2002 at 15:36:00:
In Reply to: does marching band messup your sound? posted by James Tony Rivera on November 03, 2002 at 20:16:56:
James,
This long rant by me is not aimed at you per se, but at a rather common attitude expressed here on this BBS. I am talking to all of us that are reading your thread (myself included). So, in answer to your question, in my opinion:
No.
Period.
WE mess up our sounds out on the field by not taking the playing portion of marching band seriously enough. We tend to let our playing slide and then blame the type of playing rather than ourselves. There are no such things as "indoor sound" and "outdoor sound" - only good sound and bad sound.
You can make excuses all day long about what marching band does to any aspect of your playing, but YOU are ultimately responsible for whatever comes out of the bell of your tuba. If you let your breathing get ragged or your sound to get out of control just because you are playing loudly, moving around, or concentrating on your routings - well - that is YOUR fault.
What excuse will you come up with for not practicing, not executing, or not paying attention to 100% of the details in the music during concert season?
Following that same line of flawed reasoning, one could blame lots of playing problems on various playing situations:
Is Concert Band experience detrimental to your future career as a Professional Symphony Orchestra tubist?
No. Band is VERY different than orchestra. But one is not harmful to the other, unless you show up to play "Fountains of Rome" as if you are sitting in a section of tubas in a band. Who's fault is it if you picked up "a bunch of BAND playing habits" and applied that kind of playing to "Fountains"? These two types of playing are very different, and playing like a bando in orchestra is wrong. Orchestra requires a particular style of playing, just as does band. If you don't catch those differences, who is to blame?
Is playing in a Symphony going to harm your soloistic playing?
No. If you try to play the Casterede or the Vaughan Williams like Prokofiev 5, can it be blamed on bad habits you picked up by playing so often in an "orchestral style"? It is your own fault if you do this.
This whole "marching band is evil" idea is a bunch of CRAP! It is a cop out!
PRACTICE!!
CONCENTRATE!!
Play well ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!! YOU are the only thing standing in the way of your own advancement. Don't cop out and blame marching band for your sloppy execution and ragged breathing. Those things are your own fault. If you do not let yourself get sloppy while in marcing band then you will not be sloppy when you pick up your tuba later in your lesson (or whatever...).
In my opinion, MARCHING WITH A SOUSAPHONE OR A CONTRABASS BUGLE SUCKS!! But it, in and of itself is not harmful to your playing. However, keeping up with all of the musical "details" is pretty hard to do.
Get your routings down pat ASAP so that you can use each moment of face time on the field as an exercise in building up good breathing habits and generating a big, but high-quality sound. Because it is so darn hard to be productive while performing a field show (or even a parade) it falls to you to keep your standards up where they need to be.
Or you can just whine about how much your situation sucks.
But if you don't want to let your playing slide, then don't.
I tried to make my marching band experience be beneficial (or at least not harmful). I figured that I was stuck with the situation; there was no escaping that sousaphone. But by making MY personal playing the highest priority (instead of getting all excited about playing loudly and slopping through everything), I was able to walk off of the field each day no worse for wear; sometimes I even walked away a bit improved. I played the show using my private lessons as my guide and managed to get better - not worse.
It is just that simple; it is just that hard.
And it is totally under your control.
Wade "who has no love for the sousaphone but chooses to blame himself when he plays poorly" Rackley